


Invitation

by CelticKnot



Series: Mass Effect Fictober 2019 [16]
Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types
Genre: Childhood Memories, Culture Shock, F/M, Fictober 2019, MEFFictober2019, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-16
Updated: 2019-10-16
Packaged: 2020-12-17 14:16:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21055775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CelticKnot/pseuds/CelticKnot
Summary: MEFFictober Prompt: Bonfires and hot cocoa. Shepard shares some memories of her childhood with Thane.





	Invitation

“My childhood?” Shepard shrugged and looked down at her hands, still joined with Thane’s on the table between them. “There’s not much to tell, really. Mindoir is an agricultural colony. I grew up on a farm. Life was… good, simple, but not very interesting. Until…” She grimaced and shuddered as memories of fire, blood, and screaming surfaced.

Thane seemed to read her mind, and winced sympathetically. “My apologies. I am aware of what occurred on Mindoir. It was not my intention to bring up painful memories.”

“No, it’s okay. There are good ones, too.” She thought for a moment. “It’s August now, so that’s the middle of autumn where I grew up. It was always my favorite time of year. The air would get cool, the trees would turn colors--oh, and when the wind blew, all those red and gold and purple leaves would just shower down everywhere.”

“It sounds lovely.”

“It really was,” Shepard sighed. “We always did our farming the old-fashioned way, hands-on, with as few mechs as we could. All the small family farms on Mindoir operated like that--still do, from what I’ve heard. So come harvest time every year, whole towns would get together to help, and we’d have a big feast afterward. And when the sun went down, there would be a big bonfire, and we’d all sit around it drinking hot cocoa and making plans for the winter holidays.” She shook her head. “God, I miss that. When all this is over, I think I’m going to retire and go back there. You should come with me,” she added without thinking. “Kolyat, too, if he wants.”

Thane blinked in surprise and sat back, pulling his hands free to fold them thoughtfully under his chin. He seemed at a loss for words.

The silence stretched on, heavy and uncomfortable. Shepard desperately wanted to speak, to say something, anything, to jump-start this conversation, but her mind was a blank, too. His face gave away nothing. Had she said something wrong? Offended him, somehow? She combed through every word she’d said, searching for anything that might have struck a raw nerve, anything he might have misinterpreted, anything that might have inadvertently derailed their relationship.

_ Stop panicking. You’re acting like a hormonal teenager. _ Forcing herself to calm down, she guessed he was a little taken aback by her invitation. She had read up on drell customs and culture when the Illusive Man had sent her Thane’s dossier, and now that she took a moment to think about it, she recalled that adult drell almost never lived together outside of family units. Her eyes widened and she blushed furiously as she realized she’d essentially just proposed marriage.

But even as their eyes met in understanding, she couldn’t bring herself to rescind the invitation. She  _ wanted  _ to spend the rest of her life with him, damn it. Barring that… the rest of his.

“I think…” he said slowly, softly, “I think I would like that,  _ siha.  _ I would like that very much.”


End file.
